Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

One of the most influential academics on the Holocaust today has suggested that supporters of Israel are too preoccupied with Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Deborah Lipstadt, who famously won a libel battle with Holocaust denier David Irving, said people made too much of a fuss about his incendiary statements, which include Holocaust denial and attacks on Israel’s existence.

The Iranian president has declared that Israel is a "hotbed for cancerous cells".

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad marked International Quds Day (Jerusalem Day) with a speech at Tehran University, in which he said there would be no room for Israel in the Middle East after a Palestinian state was established

"The Holocaust, on which independent research is strictly banned in the West, was nothing but a preposterous claim to settle European Jews in the Muslim land of Palestine by falsely creating a sense of oppression for the Zionists.

"Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in statements applauded by all independent and conscientious people of the world has proposed due research on the supposed Holocaust."